Joe O'Brien - Green Party Joe O'Brien - Green Party

Minister Joe O’Brien welcomes €41,000 in funding for biodiversity projects in Fingal

21st May, 2021

Minister Joe O’Brien (Green Party)

Dublin Fingal

21st May 2021

 

Minister Joe O’Brien welcomes €41,000 in funding for biodiversity projects in Fingal

Funding part of €1.35 million shared nationally under the National Biodiversity Local Authority Biodiversity Grant Scheme

  • 3 significant projects in Fingal will benefit and promote biodiversity and tackle invasive alien species across the county
  • Funding doubled for 2021

Minister Joe O’Brien has welcomed the announcement today that all 31 Local Authorities have received funding under The National Biodiversity Local Authority Biodiversity Grant Scheme. Fingal will benefit to the tune of €41,000 for three significant projects.

Nationally, an amount of €1.35 million has been made available in 2021 for this scheme, which is operated by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

The funding is to assist local authority biodiversity officers (and heritage officers in local authorities without a biodiversity officer) and an exciting range of projects have been funded this year.  All of the projects to receive funding promote actions contained in the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) 2017-2021.  This year the funding was double that of 2020.

Commenting on the announcement, Minister O’Brien said:

“There is good news for nature in every Local Authority in Ireland today!  I’m thrilled to see so many excellent biodiversity projects receive funding under the Local Authority Biodiversity Grant Scheme.  In Fingal three significant projects will benefit as follows:

  • €12,000 to clear mature rhododendron from 1.2ha of heathland at the Ben of Howth Head.
  • €4,000 towards the removal of newly developing Seabuckthorn stands from the dunes in Portrane, and the removal of Spartina from a saltmarsh area.
  • €25,000 for Fingal County Council to develop three new ponds and fill in a drainage ditch in the Turvey Nature Park (and Rogerstown Estuary) in Donabate. The aim of this project is to allow the natural hydrology of the site to re-assert itself and it is envisaged that this will result in the development of new brackish and freshwater wetland features.

“Community-level action is so important, and the initiatives provided for through this grant demonstrate the scale and breadth of interest in biodiversity and the natural world across the country and here in Fingal.”

The National Biodiversity Action Plan 2017-2021 and its Interim Report is available in English or Irish at https://www.npws.ie/legislation/national-biodiversity-plan

ENDS

 

For more information please contact johanna.walsh@oireachtas.ie